


M is for Markers

by romanticalgirl



Category: Hornblower - C. S. Forester
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 20:58:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/pseuds/romanticalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted 1-22-10</p>
    </blockquote>





	M is for Markers

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 1-22-10

He is old when he finally makes the journey again. Old enough that he feels everything in his bones and joints, old enough that the sea is more of a curse than a blessing. Scars flare with remembered pain and his chest and lungs are seized up in the mornings with flashes of shuddering coughs and chills like knives. Even today as he rides down the street in his well-appointed carriage, easily befitting his station, he cannot help but remember an earlier ride nothing like this one, bouncing and jerking through the ruts in the snowy road.

He has an allowance spent specifically so he does not have to come here, but even he knows that, at some point, time ends for all men and he owes something, he knows, a debt that must be paid in person. It is quite a walk from the carriage, and he uses his cane to help navigate the path. He knows the way though he has only been here once and it is not forgotten any more than he forgets anything. Still, growth and time has changed the place and he walks slightly past the markers before he realizes, turning and seeing them in the faint trails of sunlight.

There is space in the plot, a rectangle that sits beneath cut grass that belongs to him. He tries to imagine the gathered crowd of Barbara’s friends and those currying favor around this small space, treading on graves small enough to match the lives lived by those beneath them. It is impossible to see, and he knows that nothing will take the space next to Maria, to his children. She is widowed in death as she was never truly in life, and his children are orphans, raised in a world where he barely existed and never lived.


End file.
